Jenise wrote:You're speed reading again! Nobody said you get to pick a couple of catgegories. You have to pick ONE. So what is it?

Speed reading, hell! I'm <i>senile</i>!

Okay. I'm with John T. This is cruel and unfair. But if I really, really, really have to take just one pasta to the desert island it's ... ummm ... errrrr ... okay, dammit! It's standard spaghetti. You can't go wrong with the fundamental Roman tradition, and for recipes where long pasta just won't do, you could at least break it into short spoon-size lengths and have <i>something</i>.

Arrrrggghhhhh!!!! I went nuts trying to answer this the first time around and never really could do it. So I'll answer for my family instead. If I absolutely had to pick just one, I'd probably choose elbow macaroni for Jannie's sake. It will go with meat sauces in a pinch, it's absolutely perfect for macaroni and cheese, and it's the Italian-American classic for most pasta salads. But I'd be cursing under my breath for the rest of my life.

Lots of votes for Bucatini here. In fact it might have been the most-mentioned, which surprises me. It's not a noodle I've ever had away from home, not in restaurants or other people's houses, and I just don't have any impression of it being so popular. Are your experiences different?

My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov

It is possible to buy bucatini here in Eastern Holland, but it is only in the Costco kind of place (it is more oriented to restaurants than Costco), not in the regular grocery stores. And over the past year, garganelli, which used to also be available has completely disappeared. So, no, I'd have to say that the only folks who have experience with these here where I live are folks who come to eat at our house,,,, hee hee. You just don't hardly see either type of pasta, though perhaps in upscale Italian restos in Amsterdam it's different. I happened on these pastas through recipes, such as Marcella Hazan and others, then seeking the pastas out in Italy.... where they are readily available in most grocery stores. Hope all is well in lovely Washington!
cheers, Bonnie

It's a little unusual that you're not more conversant with bucatini. Funny, but I would have expected a savvy world-traveller sophisticate like you to have encountered it many times.

It's a good pasta for those who like the meatier, chewier types. The best bucatini I ever had was in a small trattoria where they made bucatini dredged in a sauce of olive oil, herbs, sage, home-made bread crumbs ground real fine, garlic, and some excellent tiny hot peppers.

Holds a good thick tomato-based sauce as well. And you can really use it in any recipe that calls for spaghetti. But I would stick with the meaty, thick tomato sauces for it.

Jenise wrote:Lots of votes for Bucatini here. In fact it might have been the most-mentioned, which surprises me. It's not a noodle I've ever had away from home, not in restaurants or other people's houses, and I just don't have any impression of it being so popular. Are your experiences different?

Adding to what Hoke said, Jenise, bucatini is the traditional pasta for one of the great Italian classics, all'amatriciana. It's Abruzzese, from the village of Amatrice, but is very popular in Rome (not all that far from Abruzzo) and, of course wherever Italian food is loved.

I actually thought of bucatini myself, but figured - given the horrifying requirement that we choose only one - decided that regular-guage spaghetti would be a possible, albeit imperfect substitute. Indeed, that's one of the reasons I ultimately voted for spaghetti.

For ages pasta was pasta for me - you could have given me any sensible shape and I'd have been happy. It's been good to learn over the years how the shapes & thicknesses work better with some food than others. I guess I could go back, but don't want to!

Favourite pasta of the moment is Tagliardi (at least I think that's the name), paper thin rectangles of pasta which cook (literally) in seconds and have a very soft texture. They'd be ideal for mini lasagne I guess, but not done anything like that with them. Wish I knew exactly where I bought them from

Stuart Yaniger wrote:Remember the kids' game of, "What would you wish for if you could have only one wish?" The smart-ass answer was, "I'd wish for ten more wishes." I'll be the smartass here and say that I'd pick pasta sheets. That way, I could cut any shape I need.

Hah!

Only if the topology is simply connnected. You couldn't cut a tube.

My answer is to not play by the rules. I would keep eating every kind of pasta imaginable.

The nice thing about fresh pasta is that you don't have to follow the strict laws of topology. Sheets can be rolled and stuck together as tubes. Holes can be cut. It's a marvelous material, one that we should investigate for the space program.